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Common Core ELA8th GradeReading: Informational

RI.8.6: How an Author Answers the Other Side

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

All 41 8th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.8.6 Means in Plain English

Eighth graders find an author’s point of view, then watch what the author does with the other side: concede it, answer it with evidence, reframe it or skip it. An essay for year-round standard time still has to face everyone who loves long, bright summer evenings.

Seventh grade (RI.7.6) asked how an author sets a position apart from what others think. Eighth grade studies the response itself and whether it holds up. In ninth and tenth grade (RI.9-10.6) students analyze the rhetoric an author uses to advance a point of view or purpose.

RI.8.6 I Can Statements

  • I can state an author’s point of view in one sentence.
  • I can find where an author admits evidence against that view.
  • I can explain and judge how the author answers it.

RI.8.6 Worked Example

The author treats the other side with respect, answers one objection well and quietly skips another, and the weak answer sees none of it.

Read the Story
Twice a year, most Americans change their clocks, and twice a year sleep researchers wince. I believe the country should stop switching and stay on standard time all year.Sleep doctors back that choice. Standard time keeps the clock closer to the sun, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called it the healthier option.Many people want the opposite: daylight saving time all year, with bright evenings even in December. That is a fair wish. Light after school and work is a real pleasure, and stores and ballparks profit from it.But permanent daylight saving time has been tried. In January 1974, Congress put the country on it year-round, and in cities such as Detroit the winter sun did not rise until after 9 a.m. Parents complained about children waiting for buses in the dark, and Congress reversed the law before the year was out.Nor would summer evenings disappear. Summer days are long either way; the only question is whether the extra light comes at dawn or at dusk.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What is the author’s point of view, and how does the author acknowledge and respond to people who want daylight saving time all year?
Not Yet“The author wants standard time because sleep doctors say it is healthier. The author thinks people who like daylight saving time are wrong.”The point of view is right, but the answer misses how the author handles the other side: calling their wish fair, admitting evening light is a real pleasure, then answering with history. It never looks at the response at all.
Meets the Standard“The author wants the country on standard time all year. The author treats the other side with respect, calling bright evenings ‘a fair wish’ and admitting businesses profit from them. Then comes the answer from history: year-round daylight saving time in 1974 left Detroit dark until after 9 a.m. and was reversed within the year. That response is strong because evidence backs it. The last point is weaker, since saying summer days stay long skips the hour of evening light people would lose, and the point about businesses never gets an answer.”It states the view, traces the concede-then-answer pattern, and judges each response, including the objection the author leaves unanswered.
Question Stems to Use
What does the author believe? Which sentence shows it most clearly?Where does the author bring up the other side? What exactly does the author admit?Does the author answer this objection with evidence, a new way of seeing it, or not at all?Which objections does the author raise but never answer?Why might an author admit that the other side has a point?

Common Mistakes with RI.8.6

Assuming the other side was ignored

“The author just says daylight saving time is bad.”

Try this: Have students highlight every sentence that gives the other side in a second color before they describe the author’s view.

Naming the concession but not the response

“The author says it is a fair wish.” and the answer stops there

Try this: Use a three-part frame for every objection: what the other side says, what the author admits, and how the author answers it.

Missing the objection left unanswered

“The author answers every argument for daylight saving time.”

Try this: List every objection the author raises, then check each one off only when the author actually answers it, and discuss the leftovers.

Where RI.8.6 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.7.6Explain how an author sets a position apart from the positions of others.
AlongsideW.8.1Acknowledge and distinguish opposing claims in an argument, the same move from the writer’s side.RH.6-8.6Spot loaded language and chosen facts that reveal a history writer’s point of view.
Comes NextRI.9-10.6Analyze the rhetoric an author uses to advance a point of view or purpose.

Practice RI.8.6

Quick Check

  1. What is the author’s point of view?
  2. What evidence does the author use to answer people who want daylight saving time all year?
  3. Which opposing point does the author acknowledge but never answer?

RI.8.6: Other Names

RI.8.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.